Computer Science and Technology (CST)

Objectives

The Computer Science and Technologies (CST) R&D line is promoted by researchers of the Department of Informatics of the University of Minho. It also includes researchers from several Polytechnic Institutes. In cooperation with the Department, researchers are also involved with several post-graduation programs, namely the Master in Informatics Engineering, the Master in Law and Informatics, and the Doctoral programs in Informatics and in Biomedical Engineering.

The research activities cover a wide range of fundamental and applied research topics related to computer science and technology. The strategic vision of the CST R&D line focuses in advanced computing technologies and applications. Indeed, the research relies on a set of core scientific areas that provide advanced computing technologies as a means to contribute to the resolution of complex problems in many areas of knowledge and to address important societal challenges. There are four key scientific areas providing computing technologies:

This strategic vision lays upon several successful cases of applied computing research efforts, crossing these computing related scientific areas with several other domains of knowledge spanning most of the scientific and technological areas. These efforts are mainly visible within the Biomedical Informatics arena, with important efforts in Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics research. There are also other fruitful collaborations in Computational Sciences and Engineering in Computational Linguistics, in The Law, in Civil Protection, in Digital Preservation and Digital Libraries, among others. These lines of research are supported by interdisciplinary teams involving CST members, working closely with researchers from several other research units from the University of Minho, but also from other national and international institutions. In the period of 2015-2020, CST R&D line will be formally organized into several research groups to focus the research efforts into specific strategic topics of advanced computing technologies and applications: Intelligent Systems, High Performance Graphics, Language Processing, and Biomedical Informatics.

Main Achievements

The period of 2008 to 2012 has been very fertile in terms of research activities and measurable results.

The following list of achievements illustrate the success of the researchers of the CST R&D Line during the period under assessment:

– It has been possible to attract a significant amount of competitive funding to support the research activities, totaling more than 1,2 MEUR, with more than 190 KEUR from non-FCT sources such as European Union and other competitive programs;

– the researchers have been involved in a significant number of research projects, some of them in collaboration with other institutions from Portugal and abroad;

– the researchers published more than 230 indexed papers (ISI and/or SCUPOS), in journals, books and conference proceedings, with an average ratio of more than 3 indexed papers/integrated researcher/year; a significant number of these publications have been co-authored by researchers from other international and national research teams, illustrating the level of cooperation between the researchers and other research groups;

– many of the integrated members have been invited to review papers submitted to top-level international journals (IEEE, Springer, …), illustrating the recognition from the work being done;

– many of the members have been involved in the organization of many international conferences and other similar events (more than 10); they have also participated in a huge number of Technical Program Committees or Scientific Committees of major international conferences; There has been also a significant involvement in editorial activities;

– members of the CST R&D line have supported several doctoral programs, namely the doctoral program in Informatics and the doctoral program in Biomedical Engineering.